Pride and Prejudice

By: Michael Kord
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  • Summary

  • Walt Whitman has somewhere a fine and just distinction between “loving by allowance” and “loving with personal love.” This distinction applies to books as well as to men and women; and in the case of the not very numerous authors who are the objects of the personal affection, it brings a curious consequence with it. There is much more difference as to their best work than in the case of those others who are loved “by allowance” by convention, and because it is felt to be the right and proper thing to love them. And in the sect—fairly large and yet unusually choice—of Austenians or Janites, there would probably be found partisans of the claim to primacy of almost every one of the novels. To some the delightful freshness and humour of Northanger Abbey, its completeness, finish, and entrain, obscure the undoubted critical facts that its scale is small, and its scheme, after all, that of burlesque or parody, a kind in which the first rank is reached with difficulty. Persuasion, relatively faint in tone, and not enthralling in interest, has devotees who exalt above all the others its exquisite delicacy and keeping. The catastrophe of Mansfield Park is admittedly theatrical, the hero and heroine are insipid, and the author has almost{x} wickedly destroyed all romantic interest by expressly admitting that Edmund only took Fanny because Mary shocked him, and that Fanny might very likely have taken Crawford if he had been a little more assiduous; yet the matchless rehearsal-scenes and the characters of Mrs. Norris and others have secured, I believe, a considerable party for it. Sense and Sensibility has perhaps the fewest out-and-out admirers; but it does not want them.I suppose, however, that the majority of at least competent votes would, all things considered, be divided between Emma and the present book; and perhaps the vulgar verdict (if indeed a fondness for Miss Austen be not of itself a patent of exemption from any possible charge of vulgarity) would go for Emma. It is the larger, the more varied, the more popular; the author had by the time of its composition seen rather more of the world, and had improved her general, though not her most peculiar and characteristic dialogue; such figures as Miss Bates, as the Eltons, cannot but unite the suffrages of everybody. On the other hand, I, for my part, declare for Pride and Prejudice unhesitatingly. It seems to me the most perfect, the most characteristic, the most eminently quintessential of its author’s works; and for this contention in such narrow space as is permitted to me, I propose here to show cause.In the first place, the book (it may be barely necessary to remind the reader) was in its first shape written very early, somewhere about 1796, when Miss Austen was barely twenty-one; though it was revised and finished at Chawton some fifteen years later, and was not published till 1813, only four years before her death. I do not know whether, in{xi} this combination of the fresh and vigorous projection of youth, and the critical revision of middle life, there may be traced the distinct superiority in point of construction, which, as it seems to me, it possesses over all the others. The plot, though not elaborate, is almost regular enough for Fielding; hardly a character, hardly an incident could be retrenched without loss to the story. The elopement of Lydia and Wickham is not, like that of Crawford and Mrs. Rushworth, a coup de théâtre; it connects itself in the strictest way with the course of the story earlier, and brings about the denouement with complete propriety. All the minor passages—the loves of Jane and Bingley, the advent of Mr. Collins, the visit to Hunsford, the Derbyshire tour—fit in after the same unostentatious, but masterly fashion. There is no attempt at the hide-and-seek, in-and-out business, which in the transactions between Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax contributes no doubt a good deal to the intrigue of Emma, but contributes it in a fashion which I do not think the best feature of that otherwise admirable book. Although Miss Austen always liked something of the misunderstanding kind, which afforded her opportunities for the display of the peculiar and incomparable talent to be noticed presently, she has been satisfied here with the perfectly natural occasions provided by the false account of Darcy’s conduct given by Wickham, and by the awkwardness (arising with equal naturalness) from the gradual transformation of Elizabeth’s own feelings from positive aversion to actual love. I do not know whether the all-grasping hand of the playwright has ever been laid upon Pride and Prejudice; and I dare say that,{xii} if it were, the situations would prove not startling or garish enough for the footlights, the character-scheme too subtle and delicate for pit and gallery. But if the attempt were made, it would certainly not be hampered by any of those loosenesses of construction, which, ...
    Copyright Michael Kord
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Episodes
  • Part 6. Pride And Prejudice - Jane Austen

    Part 6. Pride And Prejudice - Jane Austen
    Nov 23 2024
    55 mins
  • Part 5. Pride And Prejudice - Jane Austen

    Part 5. Pride And Prejudice - Jane Austen
    Nov 21 2024
    1 hr and 1 min
  • Part 4. Pride And Prejudice - Jane Austen

    Part 4. Pride And Prejudice - Jane Austen
    Nov 19 2024
    Chapter 11: At Netherfield, Elizabeth and Darcy continue to have deep conversations, during which Elizabeth notices Darcy’s increasing attention toward her, though he remains reserved. Elizabeth’s sharp remarks intrigue Darcy, though she still perceives him as proud. Chapter 12: Elizabeth decides to return home with Jane despite the Bingleys’ encouragement to stay longer. During this time, Darcy begins to realize his growing feelings for Elizabeth, though he tries to suppress them. Chapter 13: Mr. Collins, a distant cousin of the Bennet family and the heir to the Longbourn estate, arrives for a visit. He is a self-important and awkward man, visiting with the intention of choosing one of the Bennet daughters as his future wife. Chapter 14: At dinner, Mr. Collins reveals his pompous and pretentious nature by constantly speaking of his noble patroness, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, much to the annoyance of the Bennet family. Chapter 15: The Bennet family meets the charming officer George Wickham, who tells Elizabeth about his past with Darcy. Wickham reveals that Darcy has treated him unjustly, which increases Elizabeth’s negative perception of Darcy. Chapter 16: Elizabeth listens as Wickham shares more details of his troubled history with Darcy, which further intensifies her prejudice against Darcy. She becomes increasingly convinced that Darcy is arrogant and lacking in compassion, not realizing that her feelings are being influenced by Wickham’s side of the story.
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    1 hr and 7 mins

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